


When One Grows Old

by Omorphia



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Seizures, You Have Been Warned, this one hurts guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-09 00:06:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11092746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omorphia/pseuds/Omorphia
Summary: Jack has a seizure and Gabriel can’t say goodbye.





	When One Grows Old

Gabriel moved around the room as quickly as he could, pushing furniture out of the way and making sure there weren’t any edges pointed towards the center of the room. The shuffling noises on the floor of the living room weren’t near as distracting as his thoughts, trying to remember what he needed to be doing while Angela or Ana made their way to his house only to be brought back to the reality of what was happening.

Jack mumbled incoherent sentences, trying to reach out to him as he rolled back and forth on the carpet, and Gabriel averted his eyes for the moment as he continued moving. He needed to make sure nothing could hurt him.

After the war, after all the fighting had died down and they’d reunited, they lived many years together blissfully. Their wedding was full of tears and sarcastic comments, of joy and love. Their fighting, their past, the tension, it was all gone for a beautiful moment when all they had to look forward to was loving each other.

And they did.

They nearly made the young members of Overwatch gag every day just watching them. They were so ready to love each other and it seemed that patching up their problems from the war, from the fallout of the organization, from everything - it just made their relationship stronger.

But Jack continued aging and Gabriel did not.

Whatever had happened to him made his body unable to age. As Jack began losing his hair more and more, gaining more wrinkles, becoming less connected with the world as the years went by - Gabriel remained the same. Sure there were more experiences, more growth intellectually, but he wasn’t changing physically.

And Jack was dying.

The first seizure was over three months ago. It scared him to see Jack unable to move himself properly, either rolling on the ground or suddenly straightening, drool coming out of one side of his mouth where his lips weren’t holding together. He’d rushed him to Angela as soon as he could and she, at first, berated him for picking Jack up. But there was barely any time for that as she gathered necessary equipment to settle him down and get his blood sugar regulated.

After Jack had recovered Angela immediately took Gabriel to the side and told him everything that he needed to do when Jack entered one of these… because he was going to have them often now. At his age it was quite common and he’d been showing signs of dementia for almost a year.

He knew. Of course he knew, he lived with him. Every time Jack would forget where the cups were or set down his glasses and immediately ask where they were, Gabriel knew.

Jack was leaving him.

He wasn’t ready. Even after so many years spent together, after all this time… he wasn’t ready. He could never be ready. Who ever could? Gabriel was no stranger to death, to seeing comrades and friends die on the battlefield. But to lose the one you love, to see them slowly deteriorate in front of you… it was too much.

Finally he moved everything out of the way to a satisfactory amount and he approached Jack on the floor, worrying his lip between his teeth as he knelt down and stayed a safe distance away. Jack was still rolling on the floor, this way and that, pulling at his clothing and murmuring different things. At one point he finally strung together some sort of memory, seeming to think that they were back at their honeymoon in Ilios. Gabriel nearly choked at how intelligible it was, thinking that perhaps Jack was coming out of it for a moment, only to see him seize up once more and rip his shirt.

Angela finally arrived twenty minutes later and stuck some needle in him to sedate him so he wouldn’t move around anymore, hoping to end the seizure, and a few extra medics came in to move his body carefully onto a gurney and get him to the ambulance outside. He’d followed closely, wanting to hold Jack’s hand but knowing he couldn’t, and when Angela told him that he’d better not come inside the vehicle he winced. There was no questioning her when she said it with such a firm voice and he nodded, getting his keys to follow in his car instead.

There was no sound in his car, no music as he drove behind the flashing lights of the ambulance in front of him. The last few times they’d made this trip he was inside there with him. If he was being told not to follow inside the vehicle then something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. His throat clenched at thinking of everything that could possibly go wrong but he fought that back as soon as he felt it rising in him. This was no time to suddenly get emotional. Jack needed him to be strong for both of them at this point.

The hospital reeked of antibiotics and hand sanitizer and he wrinkled his nose as he walked down the hallways towards the emergency room. There was a large curtain drawn and he could hear Angela’s voice calling out for various things before it finally registered what had happened.

The call for the defibrillator made time slow down as he was suddenly acutely aware of the slowing tones from the heart monitor on the other side of the curtain. There was a pause and then his own heart felt like it was stopping as the tone rang for longer than just a beat.

A pulse of electricity ran through the air as the machine was used and he realized immediately that it was no use. He could see it, the soul orb, drifting closer to the curtain as Angela frantically pressed the metal to Jack’s chest two more times. Her voice was strained, choking, as she called out ‘clear!’ and Gabriel recognized Lucio’s voice as he told her to stop.

Gabriel couldn’t look at the orb, couldn’t look at the curtain as Ana came up beside him silently and placed a hand on his arm. Everything seemed to dull. He couldn’t hear clearly, Angela’s choked sobbing seemed far off and distant as well as the nurse’s words to him about the status of his husband.

 

Jack was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm SORRY, I'm hurting too. This is actually based on a personal experience with my dad. I had this idea months ago (mainly the part about Jack continuing to age and Gabe not) and only finally got to writing it a couple of days ago.
> 
> @Hot-Gothics on Tumblr, I'm an artist mainly - I haven't written anything in quite a long time haha


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